November 10th, 2012 – Blackwell, TX: The Nitto Tire National Championship Series came to a finale last weekend at the PSC Brawl in Blackwell, Texas. The race was held at Texana Ranch and brought together the top 50 Ultra4 drivers from the 4WD Hardware Eastern Regional Series and the Trail-Gear Western Regional Series in a head to head race that had fans on the edge of their seat. The top four finishers completed the 176 miles within 4 minutes of each other with third place Chris Hoyt and fourth place Mike Colville coming in literally nose to tail across the finish line.

2009 King of The Hammers Winner and PSC driver, Jason Scherer started the race in the pole position and maintained a significant lead throughout the first few laps. However, issues with clogged fuel injectors saw him slip into 5th place on the 3rd lap. After replacing four of his eight injectors, Scherer had 65 miles left and needed to not only overtake the four cars that had passed him, but also to finish five minutes ahead of Chris Hoyt and three minutes ahead of 2nd place Jason Shipman to be declared the winner of the PSC Brawl in Blackwell. With his fastest lap time of the entire race – 1 hour and 2 minutes, Scherer was able to overtake the physical lead and have an overall finish time that was more than two minutes ahead of 2nd place Ultra4 driver, Jason Shipman.

Ultimately, it would be 1st place, Jason Scherer, 2nd Place Jason Shipman, 3rd place Chris Hoyt, 4th Place Mike Colville and 5th place, Ultra4 Nitto Tire National Champion, Nick Nelson. The top 5 drivers were a true mix of east meets west; Shipman and Colville both gaining entry into the race from 4WD Hardware Eastern Regional Series and Scherer, Hoyt and Nelson all part of the Trail-Gear Western Regional Series.

Blackwell, Texas was also the last race in 2012 that would grant entry to 2012 Ultra4 drivers into the 2013 Griffin King of The Hammers race. 25 of the 48 drivers competing in the PSC Brawl in Blackwell had not yet qualified to compete in Johnson Valley in February. After this weekend’s race, 11 teams qualified by successfully completing the PSC Brawl in Blackwell and an additional 5 teams qualified based on series points and having raced a minimum of 3 races including Texas in the Ultra4 Series.

The following is the complete list of drivers and their finishing order.

Place

Car#

Driver Name

Final Time

KOH Qual

1

76

Jason Scherer

4:45:34 (1)

*

2

4414

Jason Shipman

4:47:54 (2)

*

3

53

Chris Hoyt

4:48:21 (3)

*

4

4418

Mike Colville

4:49:26 (4)

*

5

4404

Nick Nelson

5:00:57 (5)

*

6

4428

Loren Healy

5:08:51 (6)

*

7

4481

Alex Hardaway

5:11:37 (7)

t

8

4403

Ben Dinkins

5:12:36 (8)

*

9

4446

Gary Ferravanti Sr

5:25:33 (9)

*

10

26

Clay Gilstrap

5:26:34 (10)

t

11

4429

Travis Watford

5:33:54 (11)

t

12

4580

Jordan Townsend

5:34:46 (12)

t

13

4419

Jeremy Dickenson

5:46:14 (13)

*

14

4441

Darren Henke

5:49:25 (14)

*

15

321

Tom Wayes

5:49:41 (15)

*

16

4471

TJ Flores

6:03:02 (16)

*

17

4476

Kevin Gamble

6:03:18 (17)

t

18

524

Mark Danzo

6:07:25 (18)

t

19

4472

Dustin Isenhour

6:13:22 (19)

t

20

4444

Jason Pickett

6:24:02 (20)

*

21

69

Toby Harrell

6:25:11 (21)

t

22

81

Levi Shirley

6:28:15 (22)

*

23

927

Doug Kahlstrom

6:37:32 (23)

t

24

890

Jonathan Terhune

6:39:03 (24)

*

25

4456

Mike Feagins

6:46:34 (25)

t

26

4469

Jack Childers

6:50:13 (26)

t

DNF

429

Troy Stone

s

DNF

104

Jim Brown

s

DNF

4470

Clint Ellett

s

DNF

701

Greg Lundeen

s

DNF

338

Matt Peterson

s

DNF

4455

Andy Brown

*

DNF

4343

Tim Diekmann

*

DNF

4436

Kim Matzen

DNF

595

Tony Arledge

DNF

18

Brian Shirley

*

DNF

33

Spencer Murphy

DNF

4433

Adam Carter

DNF

4420

Derek West

*

DNF

4421

Erik Miller

*

DNF

9

Scott Decker

DNF

49

Matt Burkett

DNF

63

Nathan Unruh

DNF

5252

Bill Baird

*

DNF

4407

Cottin Rodd

*

DNF

5

Shannon Campbell

*

DNF

42

Aaron Peters

DNF

4452

Will Carter

*

DNS

366

John Sweet

*

DNS

4

Mike Odom

S = Series Qualified

T = Texas Qualified

* Already Qualified

Scherer Photo Courtesy of T. Kingston of Spidertrax Off Road.

ABOUT ULTRA4 RACING

Ultra4 is a vehicle type, class and series. Ultra4 Racing was born from the popularity of the annual Griffin King of the Hammers, considered to be the toughest one-day off-road race. The vehicles are unlimited four-wheel drive, capable of competing in multiple racing disciplines – extreme rock crawling, high-speed desert racing and short course. In five years, the sport has grown significantly from the inaugural King of the Hammers to an eight race national series including a regional east and west championship and a three-race pro series. Ultra4 Racing is managed by Hammerking Productions located in Lake Arrowhead, CA. To learn more, log on to www.ultra4racing.com.

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